Publisher confirms DICE still isn't planning to release a software development kit.

Electronic Arts and DICE have confirmed that Battlefield 3 is being designed for the PC first, consoles second, making today's news surprising for most PC gamers: Battlefield 3 will not include mod tools.

Speaking with GamerStar, EA Senior VP Patrick Soderlund broke the news. "As of now, we are not going to make any modding tools, no," Soderlund told GamerStar. "If you look at the Frostbite engine, and how complex it is, it's going to be very difficult for people to mod the game, because of the nature of the set up of levels, of the destruction and all those things… it's quite tricky. So we think it's going to be too big of a challenge for people to make a mod."

"We will not deliver mod tools in the way that we delivered them for Battlefield 2," Bach said. "Creating mod tools today - dumbing them down - takes a lot of energy and what we are discussing more every day is, 'Where do we put our focus?'"

"Right now our focus is to create the best possible multiplayer, single-player, and co-op game -- the core game of Battlefield 3," he added. "We're still discussing how we handle modifications of any kind."

Bach made his comments in February, so in four months time, DICE evidently still hasn't decided how to handle the modding issue.

Sharkey says: Oh boy. Soderlund stepped on a landmine with this one. Telling modders an engine is too complex for them to work with is like telling Hercules a boulder is too heavy for him to lift. I expect a serious outcry from the PC community over this one, and I think DICE will be changing its tune before long.